Archives For personal growth

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Growth & Mission: A Preview of This Blog

Chris —  April 4, 2013

The last two months have been the best ever for this blog.  I’ve developed a rhythm that allows me to post 5-6 days a week.  More people than ever have stopped by.  And a greater focus for what the content should be about has bubbled up.

Starting next week the focus of ChrisMorton.info will be two things: Growth and Mission.  Here’s what that means:

Growth

Jesus left his disciples with one main instruction: Go and teach people to do what I said to do.

Doing what Jesus says will require full-life discipline.  It doesn’t just include a better understanding of scripture and learning spiritual discipline, but bringing your entire life into focus.  Since this will include everything from spiritual disciplines to lifehacks, we’ll categorize these entries under Growth.

Some past entries on this topic include:

Mission

Lesslie Newbigin’s said in Open Secret that “We are forced to do something that the Western churches have never had to do since the days of their own birth-to discover the form and substance of a missionary church…”

These posts will focus on what it means for churches and individuals to join in God’s mission.

Some past entries include:

I’ll continue to post 4-6 times a week, including long form and short for writing, quotes and videos.  You’ll see a new “About” page and a separate “bio” page.  There will also be a new social media push and some exciting possibilities like guest posts and video posts.  I hope you’ll spread the word.

 

In Church, Growth, Life , , , , , , , , ,
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31 Lessons I Wish I Had Learned Before I Was 31

Chris —  April 3, 2013

Today I turn 31 years old.  I’ve learned a few things….mostly the hard way.  Here are a few lessons I wish I had known before about the three things that take up most of my thoughts: God, Girls and Growth.

Girls

1.  Girls want to be asked out.
A few years back I realized that, due to a string of crises, I hadn’t been on a date in years and I didn’t have anyone to ask out.  I bit the bullet and signed up for online dating.  Lo and behold, there were dozens of beautiful girls, just waiting to be asked out!  Many of them I knew and had never realized it would be possible to date them. The truth is, they want to be in a relationship, too, and were just waiting to be asked out!

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2. It is better to be rejected than to regret not trying.
When I started seeing a counselor, I told him about a girl I’d had a crush on for years.  She was so beautiful, funny and kind that she scared the daylights out of me!  My counselor told me to ask her out, and wouldn’t drop it until I did. The date itself was horrifying. I learned I could do it, and I swore I’d never again get in that cycle of fear and regret. 

3. Birds of a feather flock together.
Know a girl who seems just perfect, but she’s unavailable?  Get to know her friends!  Wonder why you keep dating terrible hateful human beings? Do they seem to be all alike and hang out in the same places?  The old adage is true! Birds of a feather flock together.  Find out where a good one flocks, and you’ll find more just like her. (Unfortunately, they’ll probably be friends. Play it cool.)

4. Never trust a profile picture taken at an odd angle in a car.
Here’s a hard earned lesson from the alternative universe of on-line dating: If someone is taking a picture at an odd angle that doesn’t make any sense, they’re hiding something.  Trust me.

5. Do something free on the first date.
Chances are you will go on a fair number of first dates.  Wait to do something fancy until you think she’s worth keeping around.  It also forces you to be creative. This increases the chance of making great memories!

6. Judge by fruit.
I could put this one in any section, but I’ll keep it here.  Like John the Baptist said, judge a tree by its fruit.  You can’t have a relationship with “the person I think she could become someday.” You can only have a relationship with the person she is today.  The best predictor of future behavior is past performance.  Continue Reading…

In Growth, Life , , , , , , ,
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The figure calling to me all those years was, I believe, what Thomas Merton calls “true self.” This is not the ego self that wants to inflate us (or deflate us, another from of self-distortion), not the intellectual self that wants to hover above the mess of life in clear but ungrounded ideas, not the ethical self that wants to live by some abstract moral code. It is the self-planted in us by the God who made us in God’s own image– the self that wants nothing more, or less, than for us to be who we were created to be.

True self is a true friend. One ignores or rejects such friendship only at one’s peril.

Parker Palmer: The True Self is a True Friend

Posted by Chris on March 26, 2013 In God, Growth, Life , , , ,
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The Number One Thing You Can Do Today to Achieve Your Goals

Chris —  February 11, 2013

Have you ever made a commitment to run in the morning, only to wake so up groggy and cozy you never get out of bed? Or you commit to reading your Bible everyday, only to get overwhelmed by finding a time or place or knowing what to read? Or you commit to eating healthier, but end up driving through because your fridge is empty?3218701045_8274b679a4_z

The problem is that we approach our goals unprepared.  We think that by pure willpower alone, we can achieve anything.  But despite the promises of Mr. Rogers and our parents, the axiom “you can do anything if you try hard enough,” has failed us again and again. Continue Reading…

In Growth, Life , ,
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Why You Need a Reading Plan (and how to develop one)

Chris —  January 14, 2013

For the last three years, I’ve spent time in January creating a reading plan.  The list guides both my fun reading and on going education for the year.  It’s time to create your own, and here’s why:

1.  If you don’t make a plan, you won’t do it.

There are two conspirators keeping you from reading.  The first is that you don’t have to do it.  Unless you are in school, no one is going to make you do it.  The second reason is that life is just too full of easier, more passive activities.  Reading, even the most mindless fiction requires more work than watching television or surfing the web.  Making a reading plan is like a morning runner laying out their clothes the night before: because you’ve put the effort in beforehand, you are more likely to carry through when the time comes. Continue Reading…

In Growth, Life, Mission , ,
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